The Truth and Nothing but the Truthiness

In 2005 Colbert jokingly coined the term "truthiness" to describe things that people "know to be true from the gut", making fun of El Presidente of course. (You can read more about it on the omnicient wikipedia) Ok. That's funny. Silly President, facts are for kids! Tee hee...

And yet... Lately I have had the pleasure of being lectured on "The Truth" by a number of intelligent, rational liberal folk like myself. You know, those people that are watching Colbert and laughing? I believe it was Bill Maher who said he no longer likes touring colleges campuses. Once the bastions of liberal thought and debate, these schools are all lefty-bandwagon-y and and no debate or thought. Everyone's all "I'm a liberal hear me roar, rah rah rah!". Which is cool. And I agree with their causes a lot of the time. And yet.... isn't Academia is supposed to be the home of open dialogue and discussion? Still, we can chock it down to those crazy eager college kids, always rallying wrecklessly one way or the other.

So, why do I keep getting yelled at, by grown-ups, with the likes of:"You don't KNOW the truth. THIS is the truth!"(And trust me, the only person who can pull off lines like that is Jack Nicholson.) Of course this sentence is followed with long rants about people's opinions, angry feelings and things read on some random website (...maybe here? Hmmm? Hmmm. No, probably not.) They are just PEOPLE YELLING AT ME. WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? Why is "The Truth" comprised of your angry opinion and baseless generalizations and nary a reference or example. Since when is the truth fact-free? Sounds like a pretty suspicious truth to me.

It's depressing is what it is. Don't get me wrong, if you're a postmodern novelist I welcome your depictions of your own truths. But if we're talking about history or politics and going for The Truth, that comprehensive, indisputable holy grail, shouldn't we at least try to get all the facts first? And maybe listen to some other opinions?

It is concerning. It is disturbing. It feels like I'm living in 1984 and all my friends and colleagues subscribe religiously to the Ministry of Truth e-mail group.

And yet..... I shut up, listen and nod. Not because I agree, but because Truth Yellers won't shut up until you do. Which thoroughly sucks. And that's the truth.

"Time to get on my high, white, privilleged horse and ride off into the sunset of racism and chauvinism" ... or EW!

I just finished reading the March 20th article in Slate :"… And Baby Makes Two" Forget Juno. Out-of-wedlock births are a national catastrophe" by Emily Yoffe.

I am so offended. As a woman. As a human. As someone with a "college education" who learned more than: marriage to rich white men is good. AAAAAAAAAAARRGGGHH!

I'm too icked out to even know where to start rebutting. So, I leave it to you, dear readers, to analyze and fear for feminists and foes of, what - racism and discrimination and economic segregation, and uh- small mindedness - everywhere.

http://www.slate.com/id/2185944/?GT1=38001

THE WORST OF THE WEPISODES!!!

I just came across this new "show" called In the Motherhood. An online "show conceived by Suave and Sprint".

Ohmygod this is so bad. SO BAD. I really don't have much to say. Just watching it is joke enough.
Leah Remini: why have you stooped so low? What happened to your fine work on King of Queens? Old School? Save by the Bell even? I get that Jenny McCarthy saw this as a step up.
But Chelsea Handler--weren't you supposed to be a promising edgy comedian? What happened?

WHY ladies, why? Was it for the money? Because this is actually just an extended commercial campaign. For something. What? Condoms?

OMG what was Lebanon thinking when she wore those shoes???

In Gaza, the militant group Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility, The A.P. reported. Thousands of people poured into the streets to celebrate, firing rifles in the air. “We bless the operation. It will not be the last,” Hamas said in a text message sent to reporters, according to The A.P.

- NYTimes

Seriously? A text message? If Israel ignores Hamas at the bar, and Hamas makes out with Israel's boyfriend in retaliation, I'm pitching a reality series to MTV.

* * * *

Update: On March 18th the 26 year old Moroccan man sentenced to 3-years in jail for making a fake facebook profile for the Moroccan Prince was freed and let off of the charges. Which is awesome. I'm thinking we set the Prince up on a blind date and it turns out to be his Facebook Faker, and they fall in love. It's sort of a stand alone episode. Their families disown them and they elope. Iran boycotts the gay wedding, Dubai is the uber-cool party-planner, and Saudi Arabia is the crazy uncle who shows up with lots of presents. Israel and Palestine don't make the guest list and end up going to a diner in their formal wear and falling in love over a malted. But in the next episode, the relationship fizzles pretty fast.

Pretty People Have Gossip too

Today a friend of mine, upon finding out I have an oh-so-secret-blog, asked if I wrote about people I know, but gave them fake names. "Pseudonyms", if you will. I responded in the negative, but it got me thinking. Why don't I talk about people and disguise their identities? Gossip Girl does it.

Living my life by these two simple rules: do as Gossip Girl does and always listen to what your friends say, I am going to try something new. As it so happens, an acquaintance of mine has gotten himself into quite the pickle as of late. So, in a super special edition, I am going to write about people I know using initials. Here's the catch: I'm going to use initials for pseudonyms, not their real names. So you'll just have to guess. (And also pretend you actually knew these people in the first place) Here goes:

I recently found that my super judgmental friend R was secretly seeing M while M had a girlfriend. And THEN, while doing so, she cheated on him with C. All the while lecturing others on their infidelities. Uh oh R, looks like that horse is more of a pony, and you're about to fall off.

As R and M hashed their feelings out, M was also telling our dear friend L that he had feelings for her, but couldn't do anything, because of his girlfriend (whom he was also cheating on, with R). But, one "fake girlfriend" and one secret girlfriend, didn't stop him from starting to see yet another woman - B, also secretly.

So, M has made up one fake girlfriend, so he can have secret affairs with two friends simultaneously, while rejecting a third friend. And now? He's started seeing a new woman in "public", but trying to keep it a secret from the entire harem. Yes, I could not make this up if I tried.

I say: watch out M. It looks like all that secrecy is about to unravel faster that a roll of one-ply.

I hope you enjoyed this Special Edition of Pretty People Have Gossip too.
It's a good thing none of the people mentioned read this. I hope.

XOXO,
Pretty Girl